Alice's Story: Part 1 (Mattel The Twilight Saga Eclipse Alice)

(A Note From Alice: My post ended up being longer than anyone else's, a lot longer. So I'm breaking it up into two posts, to make things easier for you readers.)

I come from a big family. Mattel made a LOT of Twilight dolls, and my first owner had every single one of them. There were three different Bellas, three different Edwards, Carlisle and Esme, Emmett and Rosalie, Jacob, me...and Jasper...even Jane and Victoria. And being a certified Twihard, my first owner had some very strong ideas about who we were supposed to be. As far as she was concerned we WERE the characters from the books/movies. It never even crossed her mind that dolls don't always have the same personalities as the characters they're made to look like. We're more like actors. Actors don't always have the same personalities as the characters they play either. But my first owner wasn't really a doll person at all, which is probably why she donated all of us to the thrift store when Twilight stopped being fashionable.

When we were all getting bagged and priced at the store, Breaking Dawn-Part 1 Bella (the one in the wedding dress) somehow got separated from the rest of us. When we got put behind the glass showcase at the front of the store, wedding Bella wasn't there. Our first owner displayed us all together, so we were a pretty close knit group, sort of like a big extended family. So we were all sad when wedding Bella went missing.

Breaking Dawn-Part 1 Edward (the one in the wedding suit) was devastated. I know I said before how dolls are different from their characters, but he and wedding Bella had really hit it off. I couldn't even imagine how he felt then, knowing he might never see the doll he loved ever again. We were all trying to hold out hope that she'd turn up in the back room and get put behind the showcase with the rest of us. I think deep down we knew all of us were going to get separated soon. The chances of someone buying the whole collection were pretty slim, especially since we were priced at $9.90 each. Multiplied by that many dolls, $9.90 adds up fast. Even if we were all bought by the same person, that person would probably turn out to be a professional doll dealer planning to resell us.

So there we were, individually bagged in plastic and hanging on a rack next to the designer purses. When Treesa came in, she almost walked right past us. I found out later Treesa usually doesn't bother checking the showcase. She thinks the stuff is overpriced. Treesa has a good eye though. She can spot a doll a mile away. When she saw us, she stopped in her tracks and came over for a closer look. One of the store clerks took us off the wall so Treesa could sort through us.

Treesa didn't spend a whole lot of time checking the condition of each doll. She acted more like she was looking for something. So I thought she was a collector, looking for that one doll to complete her collection. When Treesa saw me, she grabbed me and didn't let go. Her dad was at the store to, and he came over and asked who I was. Treesa told him I was a Mattel Twilight Alice doll. Then she started talking about how rare I was and how much money I was worth online. My heart sank when I heard that. Getting bought by someone who was only interested in how valuable I was, someone who was probably already planning to resell me, made getting separated from my family seem so much worse.

When I got to Treesa's house I expected her to start typing up an auction listing right away, maybe even snap some photos. So I was really surprised when she started talking to me. Think about it, professional dealers are more...detached I guess from what they sell. They see dolls as profits, not people. Even if the dealer is someone who knows dolls are alive, wouldn't they still try to keep their distance? After all, they wouldn't want to risk bonding with the dolls they're trying to sell. They'd be too tempted to keep them then. So why talk to the merchandise?

"I hope you like it here," Treesa said as she carried me upstairs to her bedroom. "There's someone here I want you to meet. I think you might know each other already." Treesa put me down on her bed. Then she went over to the bookcase and grabbed something off the top. Because of the angle I was at I couldn't see what Treesa had until she brought it over and put it on the bed. Right in front of me was a stunned looking Bella doll in a white wedding dress. For a few seconds we just stared at each other, and then...

"Allie?" the Bella doll asked. Treesa was still standing there, but I was too stunned myself to worry about whether or not we should be talking in front of a human. "Wedding Bells?" I asked. The room was so quiet you could've heard a pin drop, then...

"Oh Allie, it IS you!" Wedding Bells said, laughing with relief. The next thing I knew we were hugging each other.

The nicknames had been Jasper's idea. It started out as just an easier way to tell all the Bellas and Edwards apart. Breaking Dawn-Part 1 Bella in her wedding dress was Wedding Bells. Breaking Dawn-Part 2 Bella, with her vampire eyes and skin tone, was Vampirbella. You get the idea. But then Jasper started giving everybody nicknames. That's just how Jasper is. If anyone needed proof that dolls aren't always the same as their characters they just have to look at Jasper, or Jazzy Jazz, to use the nickname he gave himself. My Jasper...OUR Jasper was always goofing around, always trying to make us laugh. No matter how I was feeling, Jasper could always make me smile.

(This seems like a good place to stop. We're a little less than halfway through my original post. I'll try to post the rest soon. Alice)